Figure of 8

D

danielpalfrey

Guest
Hi everyone. Really struggling to do this. Sometimes the ink is to thick other times not thick enough. This is anxiously a control issue so I have revisited the blending lines and dots. When I do get the ink right I then end up with eights that are to big and then when I get them smaller it looks like scribble. Could anyone give me some advice or is it just a case of keep practising and I'll get there?

Dan

P.s I do use ink, not paint
 
A picture would help Dan.
Are you talking about the line being thick/thin or the ink being to thick to spray properly?
 
The line been to thick. I will try and send a picture when I get home. But yes the line is to big so I end up with a kind of water effect if the makes sence
 
Here is a picture managed to shrink it in the phone. Look at the skin between the eye lashes and you'll see what I mean. I can do the whole image but not those darn figure of 8's
 

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I think you are doing them too big. If the pic is A4, then you will be wanting to do the 8's as small as you can to get them to scale with the size of the image, and do them close together and overlapping to get that close texture. You will probably need to tweak your ratios a bit so you can get your line as fine as you can, probably reduce more, and lower the pressure. You may have the issue that it doesn't show up too well as it's white, when it's over reduced, so you may have to experiment a bit to get the look you want, or go over things a couple of times.
 
As I am using inks I haven't been reducing. It is already like water. Could not reducing be part of the issue?
 
the trick to getting fine lines is the right reduction and right air pressure. the thinner the paint (or ink in your case) the lower the pressure needs to be and the closer to the paper you need to be.
some here use 5psi when their doing this sort of thing.
I've found that you don't need to do perfect figure 8's, the aim is to get texture in there and stop the area being flat.
reduction is done for two reasons, one to get it thinner so you can do finer lines, and secondly to weaken the colour, you only need it a shade or two different from the base colour to get the effect you are after.
You'll get there, its all just trial and error and practise, there isn't a 'recipe' unfortunately, humidity and temp also comes into play.

somebody once likened doing figure 8's to having parkinsons. very small movements, done rapidly to keep the lines thin !
A couple of double shot coffees would probably get the same result lol
 
Haha. Thanks for the info. Will have to go have a look for some suitable reducer now for my inks. So, bar the figure of 8's how does my eye look?
 
The rough idea is there. What you want to look for is the intensity of your lines. You are putting it down very dark. While that can be desirable to achieve some types of art, you will not achieve a realistic image .

This isnt bad do not get discouraged. Work on intensity which will also help your 8s look good. Better to make 3 passes than be too dark. Hard to take color away.
 
OK then thanks for the info. It was a first attempt so I am pretty pleased lol
 
OK then thanks for the info. It was a first attempt so I am pretty pleased lol
Im not sure if i have my first attempts... they are really really bad trust me. Yours is not bad at all.
Everyone starts somewhere and many many of us couldnt get a dot right early on!
 
I basically practised on a cake how to do lines kind of then started with that picture hehe
 
If the ink is already very thin then you may not need to reduce further, just adjust the airpressure.
 
I will reduce air pressure, the ink is so stupidly thin I dare not risk reducing
 
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